When Michael Knapp brings his lover Dan Biggs home to meet his parents, he doesn't expect things to go smoothly. His mother's been trying to marry him off for years, and sometimes he isn't even sure his father knows he exists. He has always felt like the shadow son, competing with his terminally stupid older brother and smart-mouthed little sister for his parents' attention. Coming out to them over dinner seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally get noticed.<br><br>But an unexpected phone call interrupts his announcement -- Aunt Evie, the family matriarch, is dead. With Dan in tow, Michael follows his family to Sugar Creek, where he spent his summers growing up, to prepare for the funeral.<br><br>Amid an overabundance of memories and relatives, Michael's world begins to slip. His dysfunctional family, Evie's death, and an old friend's confession all threaten to smother him. Worse, in his grief and confusion he seems determined to inadvertently push everyone away, including his lover. Can he and Dan move beyond his family and his past to a new life together, before Michael's insecurities tear them apart?

It's All Relative

I let the door go and the seal sucks shut. I look around for something to buy Dan, just a little knick-knack or candy bar or something, but other than coin-shaped condoms, I don’t see anything he might like. Nothing he needs, at any rate. By the counter, I pick over bubblegum, cigarette lighters, CD singles for pop songs I don’t know, energy pills…there’s a small display of tiny vials, the size of golf pencils, short and thin. The kind of plastic tube that I’ve seen pocket tool kits come in, or eyeglass repair kits, something like that. Only this vial has a tiny rose inside, silk of course, and the letters on the tube read, In Case of Emergency, Break Glass. Definitely something you buy at the last minute for your anniversary or Mother’s Day, and very girly, yes, but…what the hell. Without a second thought, I grab one of the vials, set it down beside the milk. What am I doing? He’ll look at that and ask, “What the fuck?”


Chapter 98